Pakint Dragongroom

The House of Pendragon was known throughout the woodland kingdom for being warriors, guardians, seekers, and heroes of the first order. When the orcs and goblins rallied and sought to burn the West Verd it was the House of Pendragon that slew their leader and scattered their loathsome horde. When the Princess lost her ring it was Soccen Pendragon who returned it to her, after vanishing those who stole it and sought to defile the princess.

The histories will remember the name Pendragon with bitterness and regret. For it was under the watch of the Pendragons that the might of the Woodland Realm was broken, its peoples scattered to the winds, its treasures looted, and it's cities burned to ash. Pakint Pendragon was a young man, fresh to the sword and the bow when the Black Day came. The Woodland Realm was attacked from within, a dozen wyrms appeared amidst the warriors, each seeming to know the weaknesses of the defenders, the thin spots in the magical protections. With scarlet, and green flame the beasts punished the elves, and brought them low. Uras Pendragon was slain by claw. His vanguard was broken by arcane power as some of the beasts commanded magical spells.

The Diaspora of the Wood Elves

Broken and defeated, the elves were scattered, the noble family slaughtered, and whispers spread that some of the Pendragons must have colluded with the wyrms, dragonfriends, dragonsworn. The accusation was bitter, and in the years that followed the surviving Pendragons found themselves ostracized, and eventually hunted down by grief stricken survivors, or bounty hunters hired by survivors. The other woodland realms refused entry for the House and it was thus that the warrior house of Pendragon withered away.

Pakint was rescued from the burning of the wood by a female wood elf he knew only as Zudshi. A quixotic being, she gathered horses and him, and lead their flight from the ruination of the forest. Zudshi advised him to forget his name, as the House of Pendragon was dead, and if he was found alive, there would be those who would attempt to make sure the house remained dead.

The Life of Exile

Pakint lived for several decades among humans. His skills were with the sword, spear, and the bow, not the cutting of wood, composing of poems and epics. He thus turned his hands to blacksmithing. He poured himself into the work, each day at the forge was another day burning in the memories of his charred home. The strike of the hammer against the red hot steel was his self flagellation, his atonement for cowardice.

Pakint took a wife among the humans and she bore him several half-elfin children, who quickly grew to be strong and beautiful. But this was painful, as his wife was a summer flower, blooming once, then fading, and in less than a century was dead in the ground. He remained the ageless elf, and left as he saw his children aging, and their children aging. Thus Pakint the Exile began his time as a traveling mercenary, bounty hunter, and casual adventurer upon return.

The Dance of the Dragons

Chance would have it that almost 120 years after the ruin of the Woodland Kingdom, Pakint discovered the residence of one of the wyrms that had bested his kindred and slew his family. Armed with weapons of his own fashioning, and armor treated to resist dragon flame, he sought out the beast. His plan failed, and the wyrm was not slain, but he did grievous injury to it, and for a long period of time it was left unable to fly.

Following the failed raid against the wyrm, Pakint was approached by a very familiar seeming woman, though human she was very familiar to him, but in a distant memory. She introduced herself as the Lady Shius of Perenir, and he knew that this woman knew him, as she looked at him fondly. Lady Shius hired Pakint to continue his dragon hunting mission, and with her help he hired a band of adventurers upon return like no other, and sallied forth to fight the Band of 12 Wyrms.

Pakint and company slew a great mottled grey and blue wyrm, and they took from the beast its hoard, liberated the people enslaved by it, and put its dragonsworn clergy to the sword for their years of abuse against the common people. When Pakint returned to Shius he delivered certain items she listed in the wyrm's hoard, as well as trophies from the beast's demise.

A year and a half later, Pakint and a greater retinue fought a valiant but losing battle after hunting down and being ambushed by not just one of the Band of 12 (a vicious snake fanged green horror) but it's mate and several offspring. Deeply wounded, Pakint was carried back to Perenir where he was attended by Lady Shius. The grief on her face was striking, as the lady had not known how much she had come to care for her Elfin warrior. She used her magic to restore Pakint to health, and then gave him a magic ring that would protect him when he traveled.

Pakint's Ring

A simple gold band adorned with a ruby, this ring offered the wearer magical protection from mundane and magical harm. (Ring of Protection +4) but it also allowed for an unspoken empathic bond between the elf that wore it, and Lady Shius. Lastly, the ring served as a conduit, allowing Lady Shius to use her magical powers through the Ring, mostly to heal Pakint when he was injured, and sometimes to perform useful spells like dispelling magic wards, turning Pakint invisible, or otherwise being very useful.

The Lair of Mighty Wyrms

Pakint spent many years of his elfin youth in the pursuit of the Band of 12, wounding some, maiming others, and in several instances winning major fights against them. He put their spawn to the sword, rescued vales and cities from their dominion, and made a name for himself as a great and terrible slayer of dragons and dragonkin. It was in this time that the Lady Shuis came to Pakint and revealed her true self to him. She was in truth Zudin Shuis, a resplendent golden dragon. Flinching back in terror, Pakint drew his sword to strike her down, and was shocked when rather than blasting him with dragonflame or a burst of arcane magic, the great gold wyrm offered her throat to him, professing her love for the elf she had saved from the Woodland realm so many years before.

The great dragonslayer Pakint Dragonbane renounced his terrible vendetta that day, for he say that in the eyes of Zudin Shius there was love, honor, and a soul to which he could relate. It was thus that Pakint took Zudin as his bride, knowing that barring catastrophe their years would be equal. It was then that he became Pakint Dragongroom, as he made no secret of his bride being a great golden serpent.

The Icon

Just as King Thyr rode Aurixia into battle above the shattered plains of Palisander does Pakint ride upon his bride's golden back, the two of them living as vagrant nobles. Zudin's wealth was vast, but sequestered around the land, in hiding holes and in vaults. While Pakint no longer actively pursues his vendetta against the Band of 12, when they rear their scaly heads, he and his bride sally forth to waylay their plans.

The wyrms have grown crafty with age, and now do more of their work through dragon cults, and creating a wide variety of dragonspawn. Likewise, Pakint and Zudin have also gotten more sly. Rather than riding into battle, clad in armor atop a gold dragon, Zudin dons an elfin disguise and the pair travel as poor vagrants, sellswords, or whatever else is convenient. Pakint has skill with flame and hammer and works mending things, while his Bride will gather information working at a tavern or some other similar location. And only when the time comes does Pakint call forth his silver dragonslaying spear and his bride assume her true form to tear into dragonspawn with fang and claw.

And then, they are gone, leaving only steaming corpses of abominations, shattered dark cults, and from time to time, the broken and rendered corpse of a dragon.

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Which way is he going?

Molk Peruda is encountered by the PCs on the second day of their journey west from the salt-choked port of Quyn, as they prepare to explore the jungle.

He appears a gaunt, wolfish man, with matted, dark hair that sprouts from his head in dreadlocks, contrasting with his well-oiled, blue-black, conical beard. His eyes are hidden ebon shards beneath thick arching brows, his nose, crooked, long, and reminiscent of a snout. His mouth is a thin, dark line, his teeth unseen even when he parts his lips to speak.

His skin is the color of tallow, surprising perhaps for a renowned jungle guide, yet his natural helm of dreads and the jungle's canopy keeps the sun from bronzing his originally pale flesh. On his back are tattooed three women from the waist up, side-by-side, each resembling the other but of different ages. This is a tattoo of Molk's mother, sister, and daughter. His wife (don't bring her up to him!) was killed by marauding Qullan years ago, and appears as her own tattoo on his broad but sunken chest.

His feet shockingly are turned around 180 degrees at the ankle, facing towards his back! A curse from a pernicious shaman. Molk walks feet backwards (he's used to it) and walks backwards, forwards. This can be very disconcerting and outright creepy to the PCs as he guides them through the rainforest.

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